Of Purple Eagles and Liberal Batarians
by The Wandering Reader
Summary: A collection of narratives, Codex entries and one shots set in an alternate universe in which the destiny of two specific races are forever altered, and how the results and consequences forever changes the Mass Effect Universe.
1. Introduction: A Lecture on History

**Disclaimer: I own NOTHING, The Mass Effect series are owned by Bioware and EA respectively, I'm just a humble author testing the waters of an alternate version of the ME Universe...**

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 _2167 CE(Council Era)_

 _Widow System, The Citadel_

 _University of the Presidium._

 _Room 401_

By the time Professor Gofin Drassaros had arrived at the room he was supposed to be in 15 minutes ago, most of the students had sat down as they looked at him, some with a peculiar look, others with curiousity.

 _"They'll get used to it."_ The professor thought as he took up his place on the pre-assigned desk all Professors had, _"Besides, I'm sure this new batch of brilliant minds will be surprised that I will not the be the last Batarian professor they will get to see in the coming years..."_

After a short introduction about himself and of the class the students were going to take for the whole semester, this lead to a few groans from the ones seated far-away, earning a grin for the professor.

"Now, before we get on with the founding of the Citadel and all that, who here could tell me, what the Point of Divergence theory is?"

This was met with silence and the occasional cough from one of the students, Gofin grinned again, typical of Freshman behavior, all four of his eyes scanned the room, looking for anyone daring, brave or stupid enough to answer his question.

All 4 of his eyes then scanned the massive speech hall they were all in, most of the students that were attending were Asari, maidens that were not mature enough to dance in bars or joining mercenary companies yet. Among the Asari were an even number of Turians and Batarians.

 _"We have come a long way indeed..."_ Gofin mused to himself as he continued scanning for any individual to answer his question.

Indeed, the few Elcor students, that one Volus that was near the Professor. And yet his eyes found no one brave enough to answer his question.

That is, until he noticed a raised hand from the far-away cubicle, said owner was that of a human, presumably a young female one. The professor noticed her raising since she had been the only human in the class, as he observed.

" _They really have a lot of similarities with our females and that of the Asari, no wonder these humans are attracting attention not seen since our entry into the galactic stage!"_

Seeing as how the University was a prestigious one, Gofin guessed that the human's parents must have been wealthy enough.

"Yes?" He nodded as he pointed to the human that had raised her hand, said human quickly stood up as some of the class looked at her. "And what would your answer be miss..."

"Lawson." The raven-haired girl replied, "Miranda Lawson."

"Alright Miss Lawson, what is the point of divergence theory?"

Miranda cleared her throat as she replied: "A Point of Divergence, or a POD is simply the point in an alternate history scenario where it first becomes different from history. In this scenario, the alternate world has similarities in terms of events with the original one until the point of divergence."

Gofin watched as a holographic image of a river appeared on the human girl's cubicle, and it was here Miranda Lawson likened the POD theory to that of a river dividing into two sections, with completely different paths.

"One side is the well-known path, the path in which history took and all events happened, the other is path that's an 'if' scenario, in which the actions of a few, drastically change the course, like a butterfly effect."

Miranda had a smirk on her face as she looked at the professor and nodded, the teenager then sat back down in her cubicle as Gofin nodded in agreement and in amazement, he wasn't the only one impressed however, several of the students, particularly some of the Turians and Salarians looked in awe and wonder at their only human blockmate, of course there were those that looked in contempt at the girl, particularly a trio of Asari maidens at the front.

" _Typical Asari arrogance, they're gonna be taught a lesson in humbling by this human soon enough._ "

With a few swipes from his omni-tool, the windows of the speech hall are suddenly covered and shrouds the room in darkness, temporarily of course, as a few seconds later, a large screen is showed, within the screen are paintings and artist renditions of events in early Council history, from the discovery of the Citadel, down to the final hours of the Krogan Rebellion.

"Everything is Connected." Gofin began, "Remember that as we go about the history of the Galactic Council, from the discovery of the Citadel, down to the entry of Humanity to the Galactic stage."

He then began moving around the hall as he continued his speech, "It will be here you shall see a pattern, certain historical figures that later became Giants, Empires that became shadows, The actions of a few individuals that dramatically change the destiny of a single race..."

He then stopped as the painting that depicted the Batarian Civil War is shown, there was a moment of silence. And then he continued.

"This is where your project for the semester comes in."

As if on cue, an uproar ensues, with majority of the protests coming from the Asari maidens, which amused the Batarian professor.

"Settle down, this project will be due by the end of the semester, so you young ones will have plenty of time to do it."

"With Curiosity: What would this project be about professor?" Spoke one of the Elcor students.

"You will all be making your own timeline to an alternate version of history..." The professor began as the hall is once again lit by the Presidium's natural lights. "With your own point of divergences and an explanation on the events that might have led to such an event happen, and you shall of course cite of the event is a minor one, or would it have some major consequences..."

Returning to his desk, the Batarian professor looked to his audience, and smiled,

"Now...on to The Pre-Council Era..."

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 _The Galaxy has changed, the actions of the few has lead to an event which has ultimately changed the destiny of two races..._

 _But would such a change alter the outcome that has plagued the Galaxy for a millenia?_

 _Only time will tell..._

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 **Author's Note: This will not be a plot-oriented fanfic however, as I decided to have it be a narrative one like CollegeFool's Renegade Reinterpretations and the two Paragon Reinterpretations.**

 **I will however be writing future one-shots set in this Universe that will deal with certain characters in the future, 17 year old Miranda Lawson in this one shot being one of them, you'll see them again in a future ME fanfic I assure you.**


	2. The Rise of an Empire: A brief History

**Disclaimer: I still own NOTHING, I'm just a humble fanfic author after all, all credits goes to Bioware and EA, and like I said, I'm just a humble author.**

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 _The History of the Rise and Fall of the Great Batarian Hegemony_.

 _"A Nation built upon the backbone of slaves will inevitably escalate into violence and civil war, for freedom is the right of all sentient beings, and nothing is as dangerous to a dictatorship fueled with the need for slaves than the very slaves that seek freedom."_

 _\- Matriarch Dilinaga on her writings of the so-called Batarian 'Empire'_

 _ **Introduction:**_

In many ways, the entry of the Batarian species to the galactic stage shares many similarities to those of of their neighbors, with the finding of several Prothean ruins that enabled said species from discovering Mass Effect technology and that of the Mass Relays. And ultimately, either meeting another alien race or discovering the Citadel.

 _ **The Rise:**_

Khar'Shan back then was divided into a several hundred nation-states that ranged from Oligarchies to Dictatorships to even Monastic Order nations headed by Grand-masters, all of which were prone to committing violence which each other with only brief periods of uneasy peace as each of these nations struggled to become the supreme ruler and unifier of the Batarian people. It was here several Batarian republics and City-States began to form a coalition that would ensure the survival of its members. This coalition would ultimately proved to be fruitful as it defeated the ancient Empire that had been ruled by the descendants of the Great Batarian Emperor Verush. This newfound victory against what had been the top dog of Khar'Shan would ultimately lead to a serious of conquests, usage of Gun-boat diplomacy and the outright destruction of nations and kingdoms.

Thus this coalition, would eventually unite the Batarian people into a single banner, and ultimately lead to the creation of the Batarian Hegemony.

It was during the early space-flight days of the then young Hegemony would they discover the key that lead to their dominance during the early centuries after the formation of the Citadel Council. For it was at one of the moons of the Gas Giant Verush(Proudly named for the Great Emperor in which 0.8 of the Batarian population allegedly traced their descent to) would the Hegemony discover an largely intact Prothean Research base, and as surviving records chronicled,

The remnants of an ancient Prothean cruiser and that of a 'semi-organic dreadnaught'.

Although the existence of the former has been proven to be correct as it had been housed at a museum in Khar'Shan prior to the outbreak of the Batarian Civil War as well as being the primary design of the starships that the Hegemony used and still uses to this very day, all evidence to the latter had either been proven false, or the lack thereof.

Thus the existence of the ancient dreadnaught remains a debated topic among historians to this day, escalating into wild conspiracy theories and even some linking the dreadnaught's existence to the disappearance of the Protheans!

Back to the topic at hand, the knowledge gained from the Research facility as well as evidence of other races the Protheans had interacted with, the Hegemony used all of this to ensure that they would have total control of the people, this ultimately led to the destruction and killings of those who had opposed the government, while ultimately, the knowledge of other races would lead to an ambitious goal by the Hegemony.

The total subjugation and total control of the entire galaxy under the Iron Rule of the Batarian people.

And thus the rest as they say is history. For in the years since the Asari discovered the Citadel and led to the founding of the Council along with the Salarians, the Batarians themselves, were quietly colonizing and expanding, by the time the Council had made contact with the Hegemony, its territories had encompassed a quarter of the SKyllian Verge and were slowly expanding into what would become known as the Terminus Systems.

The era the followed after the Council made first contact with the Hegemony would be one that was of uneasy peace as legends and controversial actions were made in this particular period, from the STG agent known only as the 'Silent Step' to the rape of Esan to even the leaked knowledge of the horrors the Hegemony's slaves had to endure to terraform the planet Aratoht. Shadow and Proxy wars became prominent here as the early incarnation of the Citadel SPECTREs and the Batarian Special Interventions Unit began to emerge to wage these wars on behalf of their benefactors. And the increase of hostilities between the two powers that be finally led to a breaking point.

Fearing galactic war with an enemy that was becoming powerful than them, the Citadel sanctioned a law of expansion as expeditionary fleets began to open Mass Relays, to either get away from increasing batarian slaver raids or to simply look for greener pastures. It was here the first and only time the Asari had a standing army made up of professionals began to emerge, the Salarians and the Quarians began joint projects to increase their military capabilities and the Volus for their part in the increasing contribution to the Galactic economy would eventually gain a council seat(A move that the succeeding Asari councilors would secretly come to regret upon the signing of a a treaty of a defensive pact between the Volus and the Turians.)

The Batarians of course, didn't want to outdo the only power that stood between them and a great galactic Batarian empire. And so slave raids began to increase, proxy wars lasted longer, there was an increase in military spending and production and colonization efforts tripled. And if surviving accounts were to believe, talks about fully using the cache the Batarians had found on one of the moons of Verush.

It would seem that the destruction of the Citadel Council and the dream of a Galactic Batarian Empire was at hand. But in the Hegemony's efforts to increase their power. They had made a crucial mistake. And because of their pride and hubris, would forever shatter their vision of a powerful Empire and ultimately the dream.

For you see dear reader, in the Hegemony's mad haste to secure unlimited power as well as control of the Citadel, the Galaxy and the gifts the Protheans left behind, the Hegemony had unwillingly unleashed the Rachni.

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 **Author's Note: So yeah, I read and reread the canon events of OMETL(Original Mass Effect Timeline) and found out that the Batarians had discovered the ruins of what used to be a Prothean structure. The POD here is that not only do the Batarians discover an intact Prothean site, but the knowledge they had acquired there would lead to an ambitious dream of a Galactic Empire. Because of this buffing of the Hegemony, the Citadel also gets buffed in terms of economic, territorial and military means.**

 **So don't expect my alternate version of Humanity to just rolfstomp everyone here :p.**

 **Till the Next time!**


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